Harry shows one of the first tide runner weakfish of 2015.
The first weakfish to show, we call scouts. They push ahead of the main body of fish. They offer excellent clues, to where the best spring weakfish bite will occur.
One of today’s stripers takes a close look at my lure.
Today felt so much like fall, I decided to forgo flounder fishing to hunt summer stripers. It was refreshing to find them with very little effort. I was sloppy in my approach to the spots , but I still hooked up at most locations. In one area they were feeding on peanut bunker and they had no interest in my favorite paddle tail. What is exciting is the amount of bait fish I continue to see in the area this year. If the numbers of bait fish hold, this fall striper fishing will be much better than last year.
Captain Gary with his 6.5 pound summer flounder
Captain Gary remains zeroed in on the back bay flounder, his heaviest this morning was 6.5 pounds. A six pound flounder usually takes first place in the Grassy sound marina’s back bay flounder tournament.
I caught two 20″ keeper back bay flounder today. I fished for 40 minutes. The water temperature at the top of the tide was 63 degrees, 5 -10 SW wind and the water clarity was excellent.
The weakfish bite has slowed due to the spawn. The weakfish could be seen swimming around the structure but they were not interested in any lures. The stripers picked up the slack. Wayne caught a quality short striper on a smoke colored zoom. His first fish of his annual Jersey fishing vacation.
Wayne with a striper he caught while targeting weakfish.
Mark , Jeff, CJ and Ben continue to out fish everybody in Cape May County, NJ. They are pictured here with the few fish they chose to keep today. The red drum just made the upside of the slot limit, the striped bass 30″ and 33″. Their success is the result of knowledge , passion and energy.
Jeff Polhamus and Sharpie with a few nice New Jersey red fish .
CJ Polhamus with his 22″ New Jersey red fish, he caught the beauty on 9-30-2013.
Mark is high hook of this elite group, this is one of his many 2013 New Jersey red fish.
Weakfish Biomass at All-Time Low
ASMFC Weakfish Board Initiates Addendum to Address Stock Decline
In its report to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Weakfish Management Board, an independent panel of scientists endorsed the 2009 weakfish stock assessment for management use. The Review Panel confirmed that stocks are at an all time low and current fishery removals are unsustainable under existing stock conditions. It agreed with the stock assessment’s conclusions that weakfish abundance has declined markedly, total mortality is high, non-fishing mortality has recently increased, and the stock is currently in a depleted state. Given these findings, the Board initiated the development of Draft Addendum IV which will propose a range of options to reduce fishing mortality, including complete harvest moratoria and limited bycatch only fisheries.
“While the Board has been aware of the decline in weakfish landings over the past ten years, conflicting signals in the stock assessment models employed in the past confounded decision making. This peer review panel found the methodology acceptable and agreed that the stock is in dire condition,” stated Board Chair Roy Miller. “Given the condition of the stock, the Board has decided to accelerate its management process and prepare a draft addendum for public comment in early fall. Upon considering public comment and final action on the addendum, the Board will have the option to implement the addendum’s measures through emergency action this November.”
The weakfish stock is depleted at an all-time low of 2.9 million pounds (1,333 metric tons), far below the proposed biomass threshold of 22.4 million pounds (10,179 metric tons). At this stock size, recent fishery removals (landings and dead discards combined), estimated at 1.9 and 1.8 million pounds in 2007 and 2008, respectively, represent a significant proportion of the remaining biomass. While the decline in the stock primarily results from a change in the natural mortality of weakfish in recent years, it is further exacerbated by continued removals by the commercial and recreational fisheries.
Natural mortality has risen substantially since 1995, with factors such as predation, competition, and changes in the environment having a stronger influence on recent weakfish stock dynamics than fishing mortality. Given current high natural mortality levels, stock projections indicate that the stock is unlikely to recover rapidly, even under a harvest moratorium. In order to rebuild the stock, total mortality will need to be reduced, although this is unlikely to occur until natural mortality decreases to
previous levels. On a positive note, juvenile abundance surveys indicate that young-of-the-year weakfish continued to be present in numbers similar to previous years, suggesting that recruitment at this point has not been severely limited in spite of low stock size.
The Board has placed the Draft Addendum on a faster timeline than standard addenda. Staff and the Plan Development Team will prepare a draft for Board review and consideration in mid-September. If approved, the draft will then be made available for public review and comment. It is anticipated that the majority of states will be conducting public hearings of Draft Addendum IV in October; a press release will be issued on those hearings once the information is available. The Board will meet again in November to consider public comment and take final action on the Draft
Addendum. Under Commission procedures, the Board may opt to implement the Addendum under emergency action, with approved measures taking effect immediately upon Board action.
For more information, please contact Nichola Meserve, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at (202)289-6400 or <nmeserve@asmfc.org>.
*************************
Tina Berger
Public Affairs Specialist
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
1444 I Street. NW, Sixth Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202)289-6400
FAX: (202)289-6051
Email: tberger@asmfc.org
www.asmfc.org
ASMFC Vision: Healthy, self-sustaining populations for all Atlantic coast fish species or successful restoration well in progress by the year 2015.
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no matter what happens with the peer review in June
the board needs to remember that weakfish is in a
depleted condition, a depressed state. We can’t agree
with that particular panel on why it is there. One of
the main things that they said was that predation may
be maintaining the population at low levels without
having contributed to the original decline in the
stock.
We agree that overfishing was the problem in the
eighties. We have used management to get the stock
started back in an increasing mode during the early
nineties and mid-nineties, and then all of a sudden it
dropped back down. Now, we definitely agree that it
was overfishing early on. We’re saying the split
happened in the early thousands that predation is the
main focus of a problem out
out there, and it is
continuing to maintain those levels and we can’t
seem to break through it to move forward. That’s it
for me. Like I said, I tried to do this real quick.
Congratulations to the winners of Jim’s Bait and Tackle Mako Tournament! The crew on the Lora Mae had the heaviest Mako 165.5 pounds. The crew on the Warden Pass was second with a 162 pound Mako. Miss Edna Jane crew was third with a 160 pound Mako. If you weighed a shark in at Jim’s Bait and Tackle during the tournament let me know.
“. It was a little chilly for June, the up side no bugs.Water temperature was 63 degrees. The water was not as clear as I like it. I like to flounder fish hard while the flounder are available in the back bay. This is a very good week to hunt for weakfish. I know the numbers are down, but if you want to catch weakfish this week traditionally is a top producer. A few weakfish were checked in at Jims’ B&T this morning one was 34”. They had seven weakfish all together. 
Ken's Dock 